Thursday, March 14, 2013

The Opossums - (marsupial eruptus) (1989, Picnic Horn)

Your basic four-guys, rock and roll setup here. Bought this on a whim, and largely got what I bargained for. Very strong similarities to Mercyland (likely a coincidence), and to a lesser extent the Smithereens and Nova Mob. I so wanted to draw a Replacements comparison, if only for the fact that the chap on the left side of the album jacket looks suspiciously like Paul Westerberg, circa 1985. The closest the Opossums come to mimicking the Mats might be "Alphabet Roadway," easily marsupial eruptus' most aggressive moment, and perhaps finest. A satisfying experience overall. No relevant details to be had on these boys, save for an Ann Arbor, MI correspondence address on the back cover. Apparently, the Picnic Horn Records label was also associated with the marginally more popular Holy Cows, if that's worth anything.

I was the drummer for this band. We are all active musicians and good friends to this day. The Guitar player and I were also members of The Folkminers and Frank Allison and the Odd Sox prior to the Opposums. Holy Cows gained some national exposure back in the day and all of their former members are active musicians as well.

Hi Randy. Thanks for commenting. I liked this record a lot. I actually have a Frank Allison and the Odd Sox reissue CD, but didn't realize the connection. Was this the only Opossums release, and were you based in Ann Arbor?

This is one of my favorite albums. I bought from a bargain bin and connected with it right away. I really dig it and have been trying to track down more details about it for years. Tell the rest of the boys that your music in this album has really been appreciated by some one.